Obama returns to White House for first time to promote Affordable Care Act with Biden – live | US news

More Democratic senators are sounding off on their support for Ketanji Brown Jackson, as expected:

Politico is reporting that Fred Upton, a Republican congressman representing Michigan, is retiring.

Upton was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. In addition to Upton, three others in this select group are retiring: Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, John Katko of New York and Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio.

The senate is expected to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the supreme court this week. She has three Republicans committed to voting to confirm her nomination, which feels like a tremendous victory to some given how bipartisan politics have been these past few years. But it’s still a tight vote:

Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, called the atrocities in Bucha were a “deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities”.

The Morning Joe is reporting that Ivanka Trump is meeting today with the House select committee tasked with investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.

In February, the Guardian reported that the committee was considering issuing a subpoena to Ivanka Trump to force her cooperation with the inquiry into the efforts of her father, Donald Trump, to return himself to power on 6 January 2021. The month before, the committee released a public letter to Ivanka Trump calling upon her to provide “voluntary cooperation with our investigation”.

“We write to request your voluntary cooperation with our investigation on a range of critical topics,” the letter read. “We respect your privacy, and our questions will be limited to issues relating to January 6th, the activities that contributed to or influenced events on January 6th, and your role in the White House during that period.”

Confirmation week continues for judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, as Democrats drill down on their efforts of making Jackson the first Black woman confirmed to the supreme court by the end of the week.

Jackson is already expected to clear the process, with Susan Collins, the Republican senator from Maine, committing last week to straying from the party line and backing her. But last night she received added support from Republicans Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski.

While Jackson did not need Romney or Murkowski’s votes – or even Collins’ vote – in order to be confirmed, they come off as a symbolic win after harsh, politically fraught questioning from Republicans during the confirmation hearings and debate over Jackson’s judicial record and qualifications. They also say a lot about Joe Biden and his continued efforts to reach across the aisle.

Read more here:

Howdy, live blog readers. Happy Tuesday.

Former president Barack Obama will today return to the White House for the first time since leaving it in January 2017, to celebrate the anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, his signature legislative achievement.

Obama will deliver remarks alongside Joe Biden, who was his vice-president at the time and whom Obama has long credited as being instrumental in getting the legislation passed.

“Joe Biden,” Obama said in a White House video released last year, “we did this together. We always talked about how if we could get the principle of universal coverage established, we could then build on it.”

Vice-President Kamala Harris will also deliver remarks at the event this afternoon, where Biden is expected to announce “additional action to further strengthen the ACA and save families hundreds of dollars a month on their healthcare”.

With Biden struggling in the polls in a midterm elections year – when parties which hold the White House often take a shellacking (ask Obama) – Democrats will hope for a boost from the sight of the 44th president promoting a popular policy.

More to come.